Negation, comparative and alternatives: Experimental evidence from Czech

The semantic interplay of negation with focus and scalar implicatures influences
acceptability judgments. This paper describes two readings of sentences with com-
paratives and negation, namely the equality reading and the interval reading. The
experiment provides evidence that sentences with negated comparatives prefer the
equality reading in Czech. I argue that Czech negated comparatives result in the
preferential equality reading as do English negated comparatives; but I challenge
the claim that Czech negation ne ‘no’ activates focus alternatives, unlike in English
negated comparatives with no where scalar alternatives cause the equality reading.
I argue that focus alternatives and scalar alternatives are the same. Both Czech ne-
‘not’ and English not in verbal negation comparatives lead to the preferential equality reading if negation has narrow scope over the maximality operator.